Marie Harf was the first to say we must understand the enemy as well as ourselves.

By Jeff Koopersmith, Editor Emeritus

So, someone finally said it.

“Follow (The lack of) Money in the Middle East for average Arab, Muslim, Islamic, or other warrior.”

And to make it special, Marie Harf of the U.S. State Department seems to have said it on the air first!

So, Kudos to Marie Harf! For a group like the GOP to attack everything our warriors do in the Middle East because the President will not say Islamic Terrorism (Nether will I) – is the greatest display of Republican right wing ignorance shown to the voters since men and women like them tossed The Crusades into the historical mulch.

What Marie Hart said to Chris Matthews on MSBNC is this: “We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for jobs.”

Then to CNN figurine Wolf Blitzer she added: “I’m not the first person to say something like this,” Harf said. “Military commanders that we’ve had throughout many years here fighting this war on terrorism have said the exact same thing that in the short term when there’s a threat like ISIL. We’ll take direct military action against these terrorists. We have done that. We are doing that in Iraq and Syria. But longer term, we have to look at how we combat the conditions that can lead people to turn to extremism.”

Naturally the morons at Fox News jumped all her because they make themselves look even dumber or more evil than they are. They pretend these words of Ms. Harf’s are akin to “get ISIS a job” – and you can dream up whatever else simply by thinking about Hitler and what he might have said at this juncture to keep his people “in line”.

I was more than exultant that Ms. Harf had the bravery to spill the truth – the majority truth. Sure some of the ISIS/ISIL caliphate fantasies are in the minds of very smart and some very wealthy Islamics, but they are the minority and a very small one at that. The rest of those terrorists are simple and easily led by the nose – that’s apparent.

And yes, there are even hundreds of Americans among them – they are either thrillists or insane. Yet I can also guarantee you that many are tired of living in what appears to be the New America – which seems to only worship money and, only sometimes, mainstream “western” religions (Which appears to leave out Islam this days).

Thus, you can all put away the magnetism of Michael Flynn, the well-spoken, but very much in error former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency who told Mike Wallace’s little boy, Chris Wallace:

“”We are facing a form of a cancerous component of the Islamic religion which has a fanaticism to it … which is against our way of life, and they, in fact, have declared war on us…”

Flynn is very hot on religious war chanting it appears. Yet he seems, at best, to pass over quite a more reasonable explanation for ISIS’ appeal to young men and women in the region and in other like regions where generation upon generation has completely lost hope as they review their circumstances and realize that they and their children never had a chance in nations run by dictators and too often greed.

This is what I believe Ms. Harf was aiming at. However, she must be cautious because some of those dictators including some royalty are our allies and we are not in the position or the mood to turn our backs on them. Thus, she could say – Hey, look, these people live in mud and rock houses with dirt floors, no education – religious or otherwise and may survive on incomes of less than $1,000 per year per capita (according to the World Bank). So why are you surprised that they are pissed off?

Every American alive knows about or experienced the riots in this country not that long ago when minorities realized very much the same about their own futures. One hundred years after Lincoln “freed” the slaves – the fifth and sixth generation of them in the 1960s had little more than they did in slaver times the way I remember it.

Sure, some minorities in America made it and continue to do so more and more – but the percentage is yet quite small, but Fox News will tell you Hey, they do not live in stone houses with mud floors but they might yet recall how their grandparents lived and where they lived before the Second World War.

It was abominable – I know because I spent many young years in the Bronx among The Projects and saw firsthand how we warehoused our poor. What’s worse is that we continue. Do you think that young people in Chicago who shoot each other to death almost every night do so because they have wonderful teachers and lovely homes?

If you see that they perceive no peaceful future – then you might be able to transfer your domestic know-how to your Middle East projections and perhaps understand how the malicious but more privileged leaders of ISIS and its clones became immoral and moreover how easy it is to tell the worst off in the region a host of fairytales much like Hitler told the Germans almost one hundred years ago.

So, do you think it’s possible that young people of unfathomable poverty could be lured by the promise of their own Caliphate, where God would protect them, feed them, and house them while their children became highly educated and grew healthy and strong?

Is it too much to grasp that technology itself has allowed even the poorest human beings to know exactly how we and all the “industrialized citizens of earth” live in bright comparison to them, to their mom and dad and their brothers and sisters?

And can you imagine that they might get very angry when they realize or better yet are lectured by those who seek power form a different and abhorrent perspective – from the have-not perspective – so they learn that we in Europe and America are allied with the very enemies they loathe in their own region?

Don’t we recall that Al Qaeda was vocally and demonstrably antithetical to Arab Royalty – even though Bin Laden was from a billionaire Arabic family – many of whom lived graciously in the Untied States?

Yes, that is the truth and we should face it.

I do not think that Mr. Harf nor President Obama nor the State Department believes we can “build democracies” as the ill-informed and downright whacky people that surrounded George W. Bush in the White House. In fact they didn’t believe it either – but it was a great story about the pretentious “Arab Spring” introduced by Fox News and others like them. An introduction to horror and failure. No one of the “springing” nations has been yet able to form a working Democracy let alone provide much to their people. It takes generations. It took the United States generations and we still haven’t got it right.

Yet we try. And we must keep in mind – even as we dutifully slaughter the monsters that threaten to decapitate or burn our children and that lead and are in turn led by lies and half-truths – that these people are confusing the words of God – whoever’s – for their own purposes and because they believe that living like they have been is no better than being droned on the battlefield or burned alive by a smart bomb.

The world is theater my friends. Nothing is as it seems – and nothing ever was. Yes, it is true that these people have become monsters – but worse – they have become monsters who now know who we are, and how we live.

That combination is horrific.

Thus, we must not only stop the bloodbath on both sides, but also convince our allies, and our enemies that the only way the world can be at peace is by upping the ante and making it more difficult to decide to go to war because, then, all people will have too much to lose.

Americans, including me and my friends and all my fellows have far too much to lose. Isis and all the related groups in the Middle East and in Africa – have little or nothing to lose.

Therein lies their power. A power we can take away not only with weapons but with understanding.

Until the opulent leaders in the Middle East and the wealthy leaders in the West realize that we can no longer protect only ourselves without protecting everyone on earth to at least some acceptable standard – one that is reasonable by several measures – all we be will naught.

There are more than 200 nations on the earth today and the 6 billion of us will turn into 9 before we know it. The best off of those nations are fewer than 50, but we must use our brilliance and our equity and our hearts to come to some understanding of how to elevate the rest of the world so that the next group of people who have lost all hope by the age of five, will cease to exist.

Why? Because even if we wipe Isis and its ilk from the landscape – another band of extremists will quickly form somewhere and aspire to the same or worse.

That is what America stands for and realized all too well at the end of WWII. We and our allies rebuilt most of Europe and Asia after we helped destroy it.

Why not think or some way we and others can build without the need to first destroy so many of our own and our enemies?

. . . And other non-whimsical and ill prepared to govern “Candidates” for President

“Of all the men and women who might run for the GOP presidential nomination Scott Walker has little or no chance to move into those big leagues. So, don’t get so enthusiastic!” – JMK

By Jeff Koopersmith Editor Emeritus

22.FEBRUARY.2015-WASHINGTON DC – Just who was last month’s Iowa Poll winner? Scott Walker of course (not) – if you do not know him well – he’s the governor of Wisconsin – isn’t he?

He won nothing but a lot of overcooking by journalists we stupidly rely on.

Well, the first preposterous Iowa poll upon which some of the simple-minded right might be relying on is the latest Bloomberg-Des Moines Register Iowa Poll of likely Iowa Caucus voters which in itself is an absurdly devious group to launch opinion surveys inasmuch as the Iowa Straw poll and the-certain-to-be-following Iowa Caucuses are nothing more than a cash cow for Iowan businesses and the pols who welcome the irrational from the media. Besides, Iowa – is most likely the most boring place on earth:

Iowa, the dumbest and most boring state in the union – Pigs are their thing.

The news media, from around the world if you can belief that are those who in fact cover this puerile state which just has to be FIRST to tell all Americans who their next GOP or DEM competitor will likely snap up the nomination for President of the United States.

I typically write a piece every four years titled “Who Cares What Iowans Think” – so I suppose this is a first installment for the 2016 presidential cycle.

Yes, who does care what Iowans think inasmuch as their annoying polls are almost always erroneous – mostly because the majority of Americans – except those who live in Iowa do not think nor vote like Iowans – in fact we joke at this middle-America hijinks as should we all.

Add to that the fact that Americans almost always lie to pollsters and cannot easily be reached by telephone any longer.

Get this – the latest Iowa Straw Poll poll before Romney’s very expected (by me) choice “not to run” which he made because Jeb Bush would certainly thrash him in GOP primaries for presidential hopefuls thinks it has the handle on the GOP race..

The results of the Iowa Poll are a sidesplitting waste of whatever the “Register and Bloomberg” paid to launch it – as there is so little difference between the current and ever-growing mind-numbing list of potential GOP candidates for President, most of whom could not be elected to office by 50+1 percent – including in Iowa.

By the by – No one in this latest poll earned more than a 15% eager figure – which points out that few if any are ready now to hitch themselves to a right-wing wagon.

The fun fragment is that Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin which is, sadly, not the brain trust of America but the Cheese Trust that seems to have a penchant for Velveeta.

Nor do most Americans give a hoot about what most people in Wisconsin think either – especially about Gov. Walker who is basically an ultra-right union buster who talks the good talk but is, in no way, competent to occupy the White House as his background in the “Fromage State” is, well – Cheesy.

However, because the year 2015 only truly started last week after we all recovered from a nonstop eating binge from Thanksgiving to New Year’s and Super Bowl stupors – the pundits on CNN, NBC, CBS and FOX were beside themselves with no news to report at all except that Katie Perry might show some skin at the Super Bowl – which she did not. And of course the Iowa Poll.

So they creepily oohed and ahed about Gov. Walker’s besting the nearly two dozen nuts that think they might get the Grand Old Party & Friends to bet billions on their winning abilities.

It is clear that Iowans, who in fact participate in the Iowa Caucuses are out of their political minds to vote for Scott Walker in this pointless poll or in 2016.

Tasking the next four spots in this poll were Rand Paul, Mitt Romney (not a contender), Mike Huckabee who the Register labeled as a Fox talk show host(a very fat talk show host)and not the former governor of Arkansas, and; Dr. Ben Carson who, believe it or not, is close to being a sniggering stock at the very hospital and research center where he was kind of a C- doc. This, according to a fellow in the know that I recently spoke to in New Mexico who described Carson, on our then-moving train, as someone who could never gain a post at the Salk Institute or even at lowlier Scripps which is nearly bankrupt today.

Here are some of them.

A fraud but well spoken doc.

Ben Carson – who looks and talks like a newfangled Bill Cosby is a right-radical African American doctor who, I hope, does not carry the same baggage as Cosby seems to. Carson must be either a pet of Roger Ailes the Fox News chieftain, or just the best Black candidate with a doctorate that Ailes could dig up to groom for certain doom and appear on the comedy station Fox News.

Jeb Bush tries to look angry – but he is a lamb?

The next two runner ups were Jeb Bush (almost a sure winner for the GOP nod) and Ted Cruz who reminds me of a 1950s car salesman, or a 1930s Communist living in Russia who cannot seem to spit out either an interesting, coherent, or provocative idea from his gurgles in Texas.

A true moronic Texan – now you have someone better to laugh at than “W”

Ted Cruz – a progeny of the humiliating Tea Party thinks is surname will give him a heft portion of the Hispanic-American vote. Dream-on or Gram-on, Ted.

The rest of the pack would be uproariously comic if they weren’t so terrifyingly droll, and unprepared to run anything let alone the most powerful and plagued-with-trouble nation on earth. This includes Chris Christie who appears to be looking for a spot in a Comedy Club in the almost totally bankrupt “mecca” – Atlantic City, where Christie presides as Governor and suspected vengeful bridge closer-downer between Jersey and New York.

The only man with stomach surgery who actually gains weight

Then we have Jesus’ best friend – Rick Santorum whose claim to fame is a sort-of Vatican-sounding name – “We are now in the inner Santorum” – Santorum was lucky enough to be elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania and was tossed out long ago as he should have been.

The goofiest man to ever sit in the Senate – The WH? – Not a chance

To me, Sanctorum’s greatest achievement in life was that he fruitfully lobbied on behalf of the World Wrestling Federation (WWF) to decontrol professional wrestling, and that the WWF should beexempt from federal anabolic steroid regulations because it was entertainment, not a sport. No matter that steroids turn athletes to mulch

My favorite entertaining candidate in the current pack of wolves is Gov. Rick Perry – the Governor of Texas and also see as a prior loser to most Americans.

Rick Perry’s ranch was called NIGGERHEAD – it was a hunting ranch…

Perry is a lot like George W. – a guy you might like to have a beer or whiskey with – but who reasons that way of dealing with immigrants clawing their way to the relative safety and American values – should be shot down at the border or at least tased into whirling around and spilling back into México or Central America where these people are treated like slaves or household decor by the 0.0005% of their countrymen who control 99.9994% of the money.

Mahatma Bobby Jindal an Indian American is currently the governor of Louisiana – a state known of uncontaminated politics and the safest place to leave as soon as possible when New Orleans cedes from the state and becomes a principality.

The Mahatma of Louisiana Politics – He hides the fraud occurring under his watch they say

Jindal has the most impressive educational background of the lot and served at every level of government in before winning the governorship in 2007. He’s been relatively quiet over the past few months, but has a lot of ultra-right-wing cred which he hurt him if he is serious about running. Jindal opposes abortion in general, but does not condemn medical procedures aimed at saving the life of the mother that indirectly result in the loss of the unborn child. In Congress, he voted for the Federal Marriage Amendment to restrict marriage to a union between one man and one woman. His Louisiana Governor’s office has been ranked last for transparency in the United States – which means he likes to hide “things”. Jindal opposes the Fairness Doctrine on the grounds that it is a desecration of the Constitution’s guarantee of free speech and vowed protection of property rights and, of course, that is gives the Koch Brothers and others like them a pass to raise billions to change your vote to any neo-fascist on the ballot thanks to our non-thinking, literalist Supreme Court.

The worst CEO in corporate history some say

The republican woman most likely to have been paid off one way or the other to challenge the GOP’s supposed war against women is creepily-like-your old school principal – Carly Fiorina had a 1% vote in this latest Iowa poll – with the top percentage a “high” of 15%. In 2005, Fiorina was involuntary asked to resign as chief executive officer and chairman of HP following “differences [with the board of directors] about how to execute HP’s strategy.] She has recurrently been ranked as one of the worst CEOs of all time http://www.cnbc.com/id/30502091/page/3 and was included in the “CNBC Portfolio’s Worst American CEOs of All Time”

Measles Victim? Did he miss the Ohio measles party?

Fiorina is followed by the more serious governor of Ohio – John Kasich who also spent time as a television host and the one person, aside from Jeb Bush that could offer semi-serious credentials to battle the third Bush for the Rose Garden – Americans love television hosts (except for Brian Williams) and film stars.

Yet the fact the serial bankrupter and nutty “You’re fired” based television program producer and “star” named Donald Trump has to be mentioned here because he mentions himself so often during any presidential race or cheesy beauty pageant. We featured him on the Cover of American Politics Journal during his presidential and okay – vice presidential yapping in 2012 of running against the Obama-Biden ticket. (see ning.com – mag covers for more American Politics Magazine Covers) http://apjclub.ning.com/

I almost forgot that Marco Rubio of Florida – the JFK pinup boy of the new right – polled 3% in Iowa last week. I like Rubio’s guts and some of what he says but many knowledgeable people think he’s being fooled by those around him who believe he could be elected to a national office as President. Rubio has the same problem – perhaps more – that does the GOP: He will not attract the growing Hispanic vote as his political views are at loggerheads with most researched Hispanic voter opinions. To his credit he loves Niki Minaj, as many do.

Niki Minaj

Is Miki part of Marco Rubio’s Minajerie?

Rubio has less money than anyone in the U.S. Senate with a net worth in the six-figure minus column as reported by ABC news. However, should he run for the Republican nomination he will certainly get mysteriously more affluent. It pays to run for President even if you have little hope to win and Marco is smart enough to know that and to boost his power by running. Just ask Huckabee. Take a look at these Iowa poll results below if you want to be amused. What? Why does Gov. Walker score so high here – and in the next and latest poll? :

I guarantee to write far more about Scott Walker if he gets any closer to truly running for President, and thus far, it won’t be admirable.

“Of all the men and women who might run for the GOP presidential nomination Scott Walker has little or no chance to move into those big leagues. So don’t get so excited!” – JMK

Wants everyone to present ID even if they can’t get it

By Jeff Koopersmith

Editor Emeritus

FEBRUARY 2 2015 WASHINGTON Who was the Iowa Poll winner? Scott Walker – you know him well – he’s the governor of Wisconsin – isn’t he?

Well, the first ludicrous poll upon which some of the severe right might be banking on is a Bloomberg-Des Moines Register Iowa Poll of likely Iowa Caucus voters which in itself is a ridiculous group to survey inasmuch as the Iowa Straw poll is nothing more than a money maker for Iowan businessmen who welcome the idiots from the media who in fact cover this silly state which just has to be FIRST to tell all Americans who their next GOP or DEM competitor will likely get the nomination for President of the United States.

I normally write a piece every four years titled “Who Cares What Iowans Think” – so I suppose this is a first installment.

“I CERTAINLY DON’T!

Yes, who truly does care what Iowans think inasmuch as their aggravating polls are almost always wrong – mostly because the majority of Americans – except those who live in Iowa do not think nor vote like Iowans – in fact we laugh at this middle-America hijinks as should we all.

Get this – the latest poll after Romney’s very understandable choice “not to run” which he made last week because Jeb Bush would trounce him.

The results of the Iowa Poll are a hilarious waste of whatever the “Register and Bloomberg” paid to run it- as there is so little difference between the current and ever-growing boring list of potential candidates for President, most of whom could not be elected to office anywhere – including in Iowa. No one polls more than 15%.

The fun part is that Scott Walker is the governor of Wisconsin which is sadly not the brain trust of America – nor do most keep give a hoot about what most people in Wisconsin think – especially Walker who is simply an ultra-right union buster who talks the good talk but is, in no way competent to occupy the White House as his background in the Cheese State is, well – cheesy.

However, because the year 2015 only truly started today – the pundits on CNN, NBC, CBS and FOX were beside themselves with no news at all except the Katie Perry might show some skin at the Super Bowl – which she did not. So they creepily oohed and ahead about Walker topping the nearly two dozen nuts that think they might get the Grand Old Party to bet billions on their winning abilities.

It’s clear that Iowans who actually participate in the Iowa Caucuses are out of their political minds because following Scott Walker in this silly poll and in the next four spots were Rand Paul, Mitt Romney (not a contender), Mike Huckabee who the Register labeled as a Fox talk show host (a very fat talk show host) and not the former governor of Arkansas, and Dr. Ben Carson who, believe it or not, is close to being a laughing stock at the very hospital and research center where he was kind of a C- doc employee according to a fellow in the know that I recently spoke to in New Mexico who described Carson, on our then-moving train, as someone who could never gain a post at the Salk Institute or even at lowly Scripps which is nearly bankrupt today.

Rand Paul

Dr. Ben Carson

Carly Fiorina

Ben Carson – who looks and talks like the newfangled Bill Cosby is a right-radical African American doctor who, I hope, does not carry the same baggage as Cosby seems to. Carson must be either a pet of Roger Ailes the Fox News chieftain, or just the best Black candidate with a doctorate that Ailes could dig up to groom for doom.

The next two runner ups were Jeb Bush (almost a sure winner for the GOP nod) and Ted Cruz who reminds me of a 1950s car salesman, or 1930s Communist living in Russia who cannot seem to spit out either an interesting, coherent, or provocative idea from his bubble in Texas.

Ted Cruz

The rest of the pack would be hysterically funny if they weren’t so terrifyingly unprepared to run anything let alone the most powerful and plagued-with-trouble nation on earth. This includes Chris Christie’s who appears to be looking for a spot in a Comedy Club in on the almost totally bankrupt states of Atlantic City where Christie presides as Governor and suspected vengeful bridge closer-downer between Jersey and New York.

Chris Christie

Then there is Jesus’ best friend – Rick Santorum who even has a kind of Vatican-sounding name – “We are now in the inner Santorum” - who was lucky enough to be elected to the Senate from Pennsylvania and was tossed out long ago as he should have been.

Rick Santorum

My favorite guy in this pack is Rick Perry – the Governor of Texas. Perry is a lot like George W. – a guy you might like to have a beer or a whiskey with – but who thinks dealing with immigrants clawing their way to the relative safety of American values – should be shot at the border or at least tased into turning around and running back to Central America or Mexico where they are treated like slaves or household decor by the 0.0005 percent of their countrymen who control 99% of the money.

Rick Perry

Bobby Jindal an Indian (as in India) American is currently the governor of the Louisiana – a state known for the cleanest politics and the safest place to leave as soon as possible when New Orleans cedes the state and becomes a principality. Jindal has the most impressive educational background of the lot and served at every level of government in before winning the governorship in 2007.

He’s been relatively quiet over the past few months, but has a lot of ultra-right-wing cred which he hurt him if he is serious about running.

Bobby Jindal

The republican woman most likely to have been brought off one way or the other to challenge the GOP’s supposed war against women is Carly Fiorina with a 1% vote in this latest poll -with the top percentage a “high” of 15%. In 2005, Fiorina was forced to resign as chief executive officer and chairman of HP following “differences [with the board of directors] about how to execute HP’s strategy.”[3] She has frequently been ranked as one of the worst CEOs of all time. http://www.cnbc.com/id/30502091/page/3 and was included in the “CNBC Portfolio’s Worst American CEOs of All Time”

Carly Fiornia

She is followed by the serious governor of Ohio – John Kasich who also spent time as a television host and the one person, aside from Jeb Bush that could offer serious credentials to battle the third Bush for the Rose Garden.

John Kasich

Yet the fact the serial bankrupter and nutty “you’re fired” based television programs Donald Trump – who we featured on the Cover of American Politics Journal during his yapping in 2012 of running against the Obama-Biden ticket – it was a favorite of both Republicans and Democrats alike in that former and disgraced speaker of the House Newt Gingrich thought he would be the best president that year.

The Donald – Donald Trump

Trump and Gingrich in the Rose Garden (2011)

I almost forgot that Marco Rubio of Florida – the JFK pinup boy of the new right polled 3% in Iowa last week. I like Rubio’s guts and some of what he says but many knowledgeable people think he’s being fooled by those around him who think he could be elected to national office as President. Rubio has the same problem – perhaps more – that does the GOP: He will not attract the growing Hispanic vote as his political views are at loggerheads with most researched Hispanic voter opinions. To his credit he loves NIki Minaj, as do.

Gorgeous Niki Menage and Marco Rubio

Rubio has less money than anyone in the U.S. Senate with a net worth in the six- figure minus column as reported by ABC news. However, should he run for the Republican nomination he will certainly get richer. It pays to run for President even if you have little hope to win and Marco is smart enough to know that and to boost his power by running. Just ask Huckabee.

Take a look at these Iowa poll results below if you want to be amused.

I promise to tell you much more about Scott Walker if he gets even close to truly running for President.

You had to weep when you saw Senator McCain on Sunday political talk shows this week.

Of course, he would not back off his comments to the Code Pink demonstrators who called for Hank Kissinger’s arrest during a Senate Committee Meeting where at least McCain was over-eager to hear the octogenarian-plus-eleven year old’s words regarding the state of foreign affairs. Here is what he said even today about this scummy comments:

Even Chris Hitchens, who I abhorred for his reverso politics (Bless his soul even though he never believed he had one) told us that Kissinger was indictable.

Hitchens presents a rather straightforward argument that make two undeniable propositions. Hank conspired to murder, and on many other occasions, he was the driving force behind be called war crimes.

Hitchens called this a “lay-down” A case that shows facts and rules of law that are nearly insurmountable by defense. The murder victim was General Rene Schneider, who was the Commander in Chief of the Chilean Army or who Chris called the army’s “Chief of Staff.”; According to Hitchens (and the 09 September, 1970 minutes of the “40” Committee, the Kissinger chaired secret panel that oversaw U.S. covert operations), the Chilean military was neutral re political affairs.

Schneider had a strong and committed sense of the rule of law and upholding the Chilean constitution against a ready coup against newly elected Socialist President Salvador Allende by a right wing gang of current and former Chilean military men. Using U.S. Government communications cables from the CIA and documents from the State Department, and White House, Hitchens relates the facts of Kissinger’s direct involvement in the direction, planning, financing, and general support by the organs of the U.S. Government in the plot to remove General Schneider.

Kissinger— rivals Pol Pot for the dishonor of being a person responsible for the death of the highest number of innocent people in South East Asia and even today still wields significant power in the United States; but his role as a happy warrior and fan of mass murder, totalitarianism and other atrocities seems to be buried and never openly discussed in the media.

Kissinger gave the thumb’s up to Suharto’s invasion of East Timor and following and mass war crimes there, and he helped President Nixon plan and hold harmless the Pinochet coup and reign of terror, torture, and murder, He also personally orchestrated the first phase of the holocaust in Cambodia according to record.

According to Walter Isaacson Kissinger borrowed several hundred thousand dollars from which he borrowed from Goldman Sachs during the latter part of the 20th Century. You can read his list of huge corporate clients in Issacson’s book on Kissinger – Hank serves as a kind of personal National Security Adviser and Secretary of State for untold multinational corporations.

Kissinger, now over 90, I am sure felt he was doing the right thing – but that does not excuse his conduct no matter how he affords his ability to stay alive for so long. One only wonders if he and Dick Cheney play poker together as friends or rivals?

I cannot understand what the battle about the film “American Sniper” is all about.

The American snipers I know of did not start the wars in the middle east. Dick Cheney did that despite warnings to the contrary which we and our snipers, so long after, now reap.

American snipers did not order the planes that hit the World Trade Center.

American snipers believe that they are helping greatly to protect other troops on the ground – and they are.

I am particularly disappointed by Michael Moore’s remarks because they eat away at his other ingenious work that is truly needed in a nation that has caught too grand a dose of greed. Remarks like his lessen his credibility, with everyone.

The film shows not only how difficult this job is, but how it hangs in the consciousness of the sniper. The Jihadists they shoot and kill also have snipers that kill and maim our boys and girls. So don’t fool yourself Mr. Rogan. You are attacking the wrong reality.

Despite the fact that I believe these uprisings stem from poverty and dictatorship, there is no sanity in throwing the baby out with the baathwater. (sp. intentional). To say that snipers are evil is tragic. They are doing what we ask them to do -and at terrible cost to them whether they survive or not. Imagine feeling that you killed so many, or you missed too many.

How would the people who never served feel if put in this position?

If there is blame to shuffle – deal it to the Commanders in Chief and their shell-shocked cabinets as well as us.

It is we who expect revenge for the attacks of the early 2000s and before. It is we who demand our pound of flesh. If any are murderers it is us or the men who lied to us about the need for the first invasion in the Middle-East.

So “man-up” and see the film before you review it and insult the men and women who risk their lives and limbs every moment they are away from home, their families and their friends.

My God – if only for their parents, their children and their spouses – keep your mouths shut.

WASHINGTON DC – 20 January 2015 – It is terrifying how many times Charles Krauthammer turns up like a bad penny on Fox News. One never knows when that mean-spirited grump will show his face, care of Roger Ailes et al and his usual team of bleached screaming blondes or the likes of Bret Baier who I am forced to write has a far loftier IQ than the con-freak he replaced, Brit Hume – just another reject from the broadcast networks joining most of the has-beens on Fox.

The Kraut (my pet name for him) appeared on Fox with Baier, mostly to do his duty as a sneering critic of President Obama who has clearly decided to do battle with the new GOP majorities in the House and Senate by helping aliens become citizens and seeking laws to urge the wealthy to provide a bit more of their billions to give at least some relief to the middle class and at even some of the poorest in these United States.

Of course, making a tax move on the fastest growing kleptocratic cabal in world history is plain nonsense to Krauthammer who may have finally reached the top ten percent of earners through either a drunken Act of God or some Voodoo intonation that allows him to cloud your television screen and your brain in his nonstop appearances and truthless opinion columns in the Washington Post.

I often wonder Whether Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amazon.com and the owner of the Post, reads Krauthammer’s fairytales without feeling like texting the newspaper’s HR department with an electronic pink slip.

My anger at The Kraut does not come from anything but his own outrageous flexure of the truth. I am sure he is a wonderful guy to go to a Nats game with, or wonder what it would have been like if we had lost the second World War.

Krauthammer tells us that President Obama’s plan for tax reform is “not about tax reform.” He adds that this is corruption of the language because it is not tax reform in that it does not “simplify the tax code, lower rates, and eliminate loopholes” when that is exactly what the reform will do.

The only problem for Krauthammer is that he somehow puts himself in the laps of billionaires and sees reform as only that which punishes the poor (as in welfare reform and lack of healthcare “reform“) and rewards the richest among us with tax cuts and lower private medical insurance premiums – both of which are not on the Obama “feed the rich” menu – He doesn’t have one.

Along that line, The Kraut tells of, surprisingly, that Obama’s plan, which the President will announce tonight during his State of Unions speech, is a tax and spend via revenue increases for the federal government – This even though the Cheney Wars have cost us untold trillions that made Cheney himself a richer than Croesus neocon even as he was arranging the hanging death of Saddam Hussein who he once shook hands with in celebration of Saddam’s agreement to go to war with Iran, thus starting the beginning of the end for hope of any kind of peace in the Middle -East.

Well done Mr. Cheney!

Krauthammer labels tax relief for the middle class and some of the poorest Americans as “handouts” and “curly cues.” (You can hear him say that and more below on a Fox clip from Real Clear Politics)

Charles Krauthammer lives in the far gone past – this time harking back to the 1980s and what he calls “25 years of almost uninterrupted economic growth” Really, but for whom?

He conveniently forgets that during those same 25 years the average working man and woman has had absolutely no real increase in earnings while the unindicted co-conspirators in our “Open Markets ” were busy putting the nation in bankruptcy which only Obama rescued – not Mr. Bush.

During the 2008 presidential campaign Krauthammer posits that Charlie Gibson, of all people, asked President Obama a “famous question” – Huh? – Whether raising capital gains tax is something Obama would support – even if it lowered revenues. The President said he would.

Again The Kraut acts as if respected economists, not those in the back pockets of the wealthy, believe that increasing taxes on the richest would indeed cause tax revenue to go down. Right. We increase taxes on the wealthiest against their humongous income and vast estates – but this results in less revenue? Ah! It must be that they will all flee to the Cayman Islands and leave the nation destitute – Is that what The Kraut believes will happen?

This is not true of course – unless someone like Krauthammer engineered it through other weaselish tax breaks for the wealthy hidden in another part of the text of the Tax Code. Obama is not planning to do this, he just wants to provide a modicum and deserved relief for people that actually work for a living – behind a desk, in a mine, in a high school – not around a dinner table at Les Grenouilles in Manhattan.

And predictably, Charles Krauthammer, follows this by explaining to we morons that the point of ” taxes are to bring in revenue.”

Yes, that’s correct Mr. Krauthammer, the point of raising taxes on top tier incomes IS to bring in revenue, but direct that revenue, at least in part, to the most needy and therefore abused in this country.

Crikey! The evil Kraut, to cover his a__, claims that President Obama wants to punish the rich regardless, but that he would agree with the Obama plan if it would help the economy.

A great New Yorker, A wonderful Governor, and a guy for the common man: Mario Cuomo

A hero and mentor of mine, Mario Cuomo, has died. He is survived by his wonderful wife Matilda, his children and 12 grandchildren.

Governor of New York for three terms, Mario led the charge against Reagan Republicans, reminding them almost every day that it was the common man who was in trouble in the early 1980s and not the wealthier of us.

There is nothing more to add save for the fact that Mario Cuomo was and will continue to be a true “shining star on a hill” and someone I was proud to study and know. Best of all – he was a helluva baseball player.

I have no idea what the Republican Party has become – but I was trained by Republican National Committee in the 80s at the U.S. Senate level where, becaseu the National Journal, was going to sit-in with our class for a day, the fellow running the GOP Univeristy then cautioned us not to use words such as nigger, kike, or somesuch. (Name withheld, as he is still alive).

I have always been sort of an independent liberal, and frankly my client at that time was a Republican, but he also was as liberal as any Democrat.

I must admit that I wasn’t shocked at what I heard from the class leader, but it dawns on me – because of the latest racism scandal involving House Majority Whip (Maybe) to be- Steve Scalise – as he has been found to have been a key speaker at a white supremacist conference sponsored by the Ku Klux Klan leader – David Duke himself. Rep. Scalise has not denied he spoke at this conference, but of course, saying he might have attended the Klan meeting (aka “conference”) and he denies knowing who he was speaking to or why.

Sure, and the GOP stands for the working class, healthcare for all, and a livable safety net for those Americans who just can’t compete in the current high speed blender economic circus where the top 5% of women buy Hermes bags for $20-45,000 dollars each, and the middle class ladies get by with a canvas tote from National Public Radio (NPR).

All this happened light-years ago in 2002 in New Orleans – home of the conservative and wannabe President and Governor of Louisiana, Piyush “Bobby” Jindal.

Scalise has said this thus far, “I didn’t know who all of these groups were and I detest any kind of hate group,” told the Times-Picayune news, “I had one person that was working for me. When someone called and asked me to speak, I would go. I was, in no way, affiliated with that group or the other groups I was talking to,” he added.

My Lord – he might have spent the evening at the American Nazi party that day! God love him – it just slips his mind.

No, how could he be a White Supremacist ? Here’s the makeup of his District at the last Census:

White alone – 94,527 (68.9%)

Hispanic – 18,791 (13.7%)

Black alone – 14,885 (10.8%)

Asian alone – 5,418 (3.9%)

Two or more races – 3,234 (2.4%)

Other race alone – 230 (0.2%)

American Indian alone – 123 (0.09%)

Of course Lil’ Steve could never attend a NAACP conference in his District very near the New Orleans Airport, where the average home costs about $250 thousand the most earn less than $40 thousand and are very White.

David Duke (KKK) told the Washington Post that Scalise was invited to the Klan Function aka EURO Rally by two close friends, Howard Farrell and Kenney Knight who both seem to be in hiding as no searches we have completed could find anything about these two Scalise buddies. I suppose that Duke isn’t protective of Scalise any longer.

Scalise, though, has a expert woman fronting for him named Moira Bagley (Hopefully not related to Democrat Smith Bagley) – who told reporters :”We have no reason to believe he was not there. It is 99% likely that he was there, but we have no direct records so cannot confirm for definite.”

The slimey part of the story is that “The Conference” was held by a fraud called the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (Euro) formed by and eagerly promoting our old Klan friend David Duke, the former KKK grand wizard who was far too interested in politics for his type.

There are few educated people alive today who haven’t heard the name David Duke – yet Mr. Scalise has no memory of what or who he spoke to – what he said, and why he was there at the Best Western Hotel in New Orelans among some attendees who might as well have dressed in white sheets and hoods.

Almost overnight there is no public or private support in the Capitol for Rep.Scalise, the third highest-ranking House Republican and one of the most senior seemingly white supremcist racists in Washington DC despite his efforts to lose his memory.

Yet Louisiana governor Bobby Jindall, who is not a white supremcist and himself one of the few non-white figures in the Republican Party, had the gall to say that Scalise was a “good man who is fair-minded and kind-hearted.”…….

The “conference” took place in Scalise’s future congressional district at the Best Western Plus in Metair, LA – south of New Orleans. Don’t stay there although it is rumored that EURO was scolded by Best Western when they found out what it was.

Meanwhile Speaker of the House and VERY TAN but still Wthie – John Boehner (not pronounced “Boner”) as well as the House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy seem not able to respond to questions about Scalise’s background even though, surprisingly, he was backed by the Tea Party wing of the Republican Party in a hot fight for the Whip position.

Some so-called experts on the Hill say he will survive the revulsion, however, I can assure you that he will not survive unless there is a gun battle at the FIrst Street NE, Washington headquarters of the Republican Party.

Tom Cole the GOP deputy whip (deputy to Scalise) said the usual: “This looks to me like an incident where a politician was at the wrong place at the wrong time by accident.” UmHm. “As a Native American I am pretty sensitive to charges of racism and white supremacy,” the Oklahoma congressman thought to say. “I have never seen any evidence that Steve holds such views. Quite the contrary … I do not believe he has a racist bone in his body.”

(Or a white sheet and pointed hat in his briefcase.)

David Duke is the most well-despised white supremacist in America, and was, for a very short time, a Louisiana state representative after switching his party from Democrat to Republican – I assume to stay in sync after the Southern Democrats disappeared from history.

Scalise told reporters: “At the end of the day, you are judged by your character.”